VERNONIA PONDERS MARIJUANA PARADOX

Scandal - A Tough-On-Drugs District Goes Easy on a Principal, Giving
the Town Something to Talk About

VERNONIA -- Chatter filled the hot, hazy air here Friday, from a
swimming hole where wrestlers backflip off long knotted ropes to a
senior center thrift shop where tutting ladies pursed their mouths,
from the local credit union where tellers came to tears to the
hardware and auto parts stores where regulars spoke like oracles: The
fate of Aaron Miller was on the minds and lips of Vernonians.

And so was the fate of Miller's champion, Kenneth Cox.

Miller is the elementary school principal who admitted smoking pot
last week when a deputy questioned him at Fort Stevens State Park near
Warrenton; Cox is the school superintendent who welcomed a school
board decision Thursday that leaves the principal on the job.

Vernonia is the school district whose decision to randomly test
athletes for drugs was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1995.

It's the kind of small former logging town where summer vacation
equals fresh-air boredom -- in the woods, along the reservoir, beside
the creek, behind the diner. Canopies of towering fir and cedar shade
fishing holes. A pioneer museum draws visitors down the main
thoroughfare, which crosses one bridge midtown and another on the way
out. Yes, it's called Bridge Street.

A police blotter in The Independent, the weekly newspaper, offers what
you might expect in a place with a population of 2,300: 10 people
stopped for riding bikes without helmets; a runaway taken to social
services; two minors released to their parents after being found with
liquor; a woman arrested for possession of controlled substances; drug
paraphernalia found and destroyed.

"It's rural Oregon," said Jay Nesmith, behind the counter of Vernonia
Hardware. "We've got that laid-back, lefty hippie lifestyle going on
here."

Meaning: Drugs haunt this place.

Signs near the school campus shared by grade, middle and high school
students warn it is a "Tobacco Free Zone." The local chapter of the
Lions Club -- to which Miller, 41, belongs -- supports a program to
educate kids about the dangers of drugs such as marijuana. Students on
sports teams face random urine tests. Failure can lead to suspension,
costly drug rehab classes, loss of ranking.

Miller will face undisclosed disciplinary consequences.

"I have been accused of setting a double standard in taking this
action," Cox wrote in a statement posted on the district's Web site
Friday. "I believe, however, that I have set a higher standard for
Vernonia administrators than for other staff members. Mr. Miller will
be dealt with in a fashion similar to, but more severe than, that
which we deal with students. If a student is caught using drugs they
face consequences -- but being summarily expelled from school is not
one of them."

"They Let Him Slide"

The decision to allow Miller to stay was met with relief at the
Vernonia Country Kitchen, where Shawnna Lloyd delivered baskets of
bacon burgers and grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches to a pair of patrons.

"He's a nice guy," she said, echoing many here where even childless
residents keep track of teachers and coaches.

Her fifth-grade daughter, Melissa, and kindergartner, Christopher,
attend Washington Grade School, where Miller is the popular principal.

Popularity aside, lifeguard John Murray wondered how students would
react to what amounted to "a slap on the wrist."

"They let him slide," said Murray, 47, never taking his eyes off the
river, dammed for summer, where a dozen kids paddled. "What a horrible
example for them. He's supposed to be a role model. I think he should
have been removed."

Irving Russell, on a bench outside the senior center,
agreed.

"They raise hell about kids and drugs," said the 75-year-old retired
bridge inspector, "and then when the principal comes along -- who
knows better -- they exonerate him. Seems to me he and the
superintendent should be brought down."

Teens Shrug It Off

Just out of town, high school wrestlers Tylor Owen, 16, and Zack
Nutting, 15, swung from ropes at the idyllic swimming hole, an elbow
in the creek where crawdads troll underfoot.

Neither had been born when the school district started mandatory drug
testing of its athletes in 1989, nor two years later when a
seventh-grader, James Acton, refused to take a drug test as part of a
tryout for middle school football. He was banned from playing, and his
parents sued the school district. The case made it to the U.S. Supreme
Court in 1995, and in a 6-3 decision, justices upheld the district's
policy.

But between splashes, the teens said they knew about the history and
about current rules that test them during the wrestling season. They
mentioned classmates and friends who faced discipline for dabbling in
drugs. It didn't seem fair, they said.

Still, they shrugged off Miller's conduct in the state park, where
Deputy Chance Moore approached the principal after sunset and smelled
marijuana. When he asked whether Miller had been smoking pot, the
onetime baseball coach and teacher became visibly upset and said, "I
could be in a lot of trouble for this, but, yes, I have been smoking
marijuana."

The Vernonia School Board called the incident a single act of "poor
judgment," adding that Miller had voiced "very sincere remorse for his
actions."

Owen and Nutting were also willing to let bygones be.

"I don't think he should be taken out just for this," Owen
said.

Nutting chimed in, tugging the rope before swinging into the still
air: "It's just pot."